Sofia Alessia underwent gastric sleeve surgery in 2022
A mum says that she “regrets” getting £10k weight-loss surgery and wishes she had taken injections instead – after the surgery left her “throwing up lumps of flesh”.
Sofia Alessia, 28, gained weight during and after her first pregnancy when she went up to a size 16 from being a size 10. She reached 16 stone and decided to get a gastric sleeve surgery in the UK as a “quick fix” after struggling to lose weight.
But after the surgery, the mum-of-one was left ”constantly throwing up lumps of flesh”, and was unable to keep any fluids or food down.
She had to be treated for pneumonia and blood clots in her lungs before then going to a gastric bypass fix her issues. After that, she developed sepsis and has now been left with two hernias – and is still in constant agony.
Despite losing seven stone as a result of the surgery, Sofia wishes she hadn’t rushed into surgery and waited for weight loss jabs to be approved in the UK.
Sofia, an influencer, from Littleborough, Rochdale, said: “I’m still in pain every single day. I feel ‘drunk’ a lot. On bad days I can’t get out of bed. I rushed it and I wished I’d waited and done Mounjaro.”
Before becoming a mum, Sofia said she ”easily maintained” a size 10 figure, but she gained weight in 2019 after the birth of her daughter, Ayla-Valentina, now aged four.
She said that she began bingeing on family-sized packets of crisps and a multipacks of Kinder buenos, and soon grew to a size 16.
Sofia said: “I didn’t know what do. I knew I wasn’t happy for my size, but I couldn’t stop binge eating. I needed help. I needed a quick fix.”
The new mum booked in for weight loss surgery at what she believed to be a reputable clinic in January 31, 2022.
There are different types of weight loss surgery but Sofia went down the gastric sleeve route. According to the NHS, this surgery starts with about five small cuts to your tummy. It’s then filled with air so the surgeon is able to remove part of the stomach. Around 80% of the stomach is removed to make it much smaller and a sleeve shape, and the operation usually takes 1 to 3 hours.
After the procedure to remove a large part of her stomach, leaving just a thin sleeve, she woke to find herself ”uncontrollably vomiting” and feeling extreme dehydration. She was throwing up thick liquid that looked like “lumps of flesh” but despite her condition she was discharged after just 24 hours.
She said: “Every day was a nightmare that I couldn’t wake up from. I was vomiting lumps of flesh every day and night.”
Just hours after the operation, Sofia was admitted to Blackburn Royal Hospital, in which she spent three weeks receiving nutrition through a tube due as she couldn’t keep food down.
The influencer was then moved to Worcester Royal Hospital for further treatment, and was fitted with a feeding tube, this insertion later revealed two blood clots located in each lung.
Sofia said: “I hadn’t seen my family in days, and I couldn’t keep anything down. I felt like I was dying, and everything was getting worse and worse.”
Her condition continued to deteriorate, and she developed pneumonia, while doctors discovered that more than 80% of her stomach had been removed which caused a stricture. The clinic where Sofia had her gastric sleeve surgery sent her a £250 care package of aftercare products and arranged to fix the surgery themselves.
On 21 March 2022, Sofia underwent a gastric bypass, but due to the issues with the previous surgery, they were forced to remove ”almost all’ of her stomach.
During the procedure, the surgeon stapled her bowel into her smaller intestine which caused chronic sepsis to quickly develop.
She was taken to Worcester Hospital for further treatment where successfully removed the staples from the lower intestine and stomach, and drained the infection from her body. After three months in hospital, on April 9 she returned home.
Sofia said: “I didn’t think I would ever say my daughter again. I wasn’t getting answers and I felt like I was losing a bit of myself everyday.”
Sofia, who now has multiple scars on her stomach, has now lost seven stone but has been left with two internal hernias which requires another surgery to remove. She has been referred to a specialist to get this surgery and has to take daily painkillers for her agony.
Sofia wishes she held of surgery and tried other methods to lose weight first and says that she wishes she could have taken weight loss jabs such as Mounjaro instead – which was approved in the UK in December 2024.
Sofia said: “I wouldn’t suggest surgery at all. It’s the last resort. I’ll always have these scars now. I chose to do it – I’ve got to deal with it.”